Organization Development, Transformation, and Change

This chapter explores organization development (OD), transformation, and change. It questions why we need to care about them and what are the key terms associated with OD, transformation, and change. The chapter also discusses systems thinking, and its importance to OD practitioners. The various definitions of OD presented imply several key themes: OD is long-range in perspective, works best when supported by senior leadership, effects change primarily through education, emphasizes employee participation, and empowers the system to take responsibility for creating and evaluating results. The challenge of the future is to help people learn to ride the waves of transformation and change in real-time and as events unfold. The chapter lists some useful to know terms in communicating with others.